Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1887-01-07

tanners, ana thcg nave Dcch 80 IHtoc
forty or fifty years Originally there
were five brothers OF that name who
Travelled all over France, going to
country fairs to exhibit lions and
bears, over which they had acquired
complete control. Their show took,
and to-day the descendants OF those
five brothers own more menageries
than | could count on all my fingers
and are better known than even the
famous Forepaugh himself. One OF
the original five is successful farmer
in the Brie country; another was muir
dered by one OF his employees in a
burst oipassion; n third died natural
death; a fourth was so badly bitten
by lions that he departed this life
leaving some OF his flesh in their bellies
and the fifth is the" Monsieur" Baptiste
Pezon, whose daughter was mar
RED to her cousin Aleck the 9th OF
August. So when / said I'd like TO 90,
Bldel said, "That'll be all right" and
IN due time my invitation to the we'd
ding breakfast reached me.
1t read that the noce would be in
the Salon dies Families out at Saint
Mande, "a qUccr little suburban village
made up of a single street and border
ing on the edge Of Ninccnnes Park,
lust the other side of the fortifica-
tions around Paris. There were
hundred or so men and women pres
ent, and Pezon said They're all in
the profesh' with rs much pride as
friend zimmerman will find in telling
his Philadelphia acquaintance about
what he saw and suffered in Europe.
! looked around me and saw curl
Gus group. 1t was almost wholly
made up OF those mountebanks wrest-
lers, dwaris, giants, fat women, bad
actors, and wild beast tanners that in
America would be known as "side
show people. Yes, they are indeed
Bohemians, but believe that every
man present was an honest man and
that every woman Is virtuouS a. sine
understands il. Ignorant, illiterate,
dirty, too often given TO drink, these
KIND OF mOrtalS may be, but they new
er rob nor cheat their fellow man.
/ They make good families even If they
are nomads, and there never was a
child in the Chester valley that hon
ors its father and lis mother more
than do these yagaboud. from the
continent The profession j., handed
down from father to son and TO daugh
ter ike a titl-oi nobility. II has been
50 Tor ages and it viii continue to be
Tor many generations to come.
At Saint Maude NJ. Pezon requested
the gentlemen to S.ye their arms TO
the ladies and escort them TO the din
M room. | offered minc at hazard
and captured prize, and no mistake
aboutit. For the most part those
seated at the long table were all celeb
rites There We're some fifteen or
sixteen lezous nall a dozen Bdels,
two or three OF some other families
famous IN their present generation
present, MOTTO mention widows whose
husbands had been killed behind the
iron bars. Ny pretty young neishbor
broke the ice by pointing out the man
We'll, who was nearly eaten up by
lions at Nantes last spring, and then
she told me that her name was Mile
/eliS, and that she was the principal
performer at the Aunt Menagerie.
] found myself very much taken
with my new neighbour Here was q
woman not more than 2Gycars ofage
good looking, and with waist made
for anything but n struggle with Zero
cious beasts-an exquisite being so to
speak, not coarse nor powerful IN APP
pearance, and who spoke OF making
the king OF beasts crouch at her feetin
tone OF voice that showed she
thought no more of it than any Ameri-
can girl would of munching box OF
bon-bons. She goes INTO a lions CAGE
without any other defence than her
personal courage she keeps her eyes
fixed without ilinchlng Ola heirgaring
cyeballs, puts her white leweled fingers
through their tawuy names, pulls
/ them around, leases them, calls them
by name in her soft voice; they
rub themselves careSsingly against
her shapely legs-enclosed, OF
course. in neatlyhtting tights
roll at her feet like kittens. and when
she stoopS her pretty face toward
them and says, Kiss me quick, they
lovingly touch Their fierce nostrils to
her rosy cheeks. At her command
they Jump through the hoops, stand
on their hind legs lay their great
heads on her knees, and stand mo-
tionless as she stretches herself ont at
full length on their backs. Al this
she told me she did ten or Il dozen
times in the course OF a single evening,
md then, when there We're no more
spectators, the gas was turned off,
the lions stretched out their tired
limbs on the straw, and she took of
her tights and tinselled bodice. But
before she goes home She gives a last
look at her pets TO see they are prop
crly cared for and that their cages are
securely fastened.
"Havc you never been bitten or
scratched 10y your lions?" | asked
Mile leila, after she had told me all
this.
ooh, yes, several times You ought
TO see my body. Ihavc scars all over
il, she answered.
glanced at hcr. Nothing could be
more serious than she looked Ought
to see her body Well never, But
Z ! 81